TRANSFIGURATION:

THERE ARE MOMENTS
AND THERE ARE MOMENTS

INTRODUCTION

There are moments
and there are moments.

We spend our lives in the valley,

but we need vacations -

we need mountain moments.

We're always on the run;

we need to stop from time to time

to see the flowers - and to see

all those people and things around us.

Some moments

are transfiguration moments,
when all of creation
and all the people

are seen in a different light.

Photographers sometimes
show us something
we’ve seen a thousand times,
but didn’t see:
the beauty of a leaf, its veins,
the yellow green of a grape,
the red of watermelon,
a smile,
the pink tongue of a dog,
the hands of a baby,
a tiny, tiny, tiny bug

walking on the page of a book

we haven’t picked up in years,
the eye, the hair of a wife of 3 months

or 300 months or 600 months,
the ocean, a dolphin jumping,
or a kid on a skateboard

going down a summer sidewalk

as we drive by in a car.

Okay, there are disfiguration moments,
beer cans dropped willy nilly in the church parking lot,
a teenager mocking another teenager,
graffiti, a cold shoulder or cold spaghetti.

Jesus tried to stop disfiguration moments.
Jesus pointed to transfiguration moments.

Listen to him.
Listen to Our Father.
You too and the person next to you

are beloved sons and daughters.
It’s nice to hear that.
It’s nice to see that.

There are moments and there are moments.

Mountain moments are great,
but life is lived in the valley.

Andy Costello, Reflections, 2009